Previous owner of Rosie's Diner pays penalties, back wages after state investigation

Grand Rapids file photoRosie's Diner on 14 Mile Rd. NE, Rockford, felt like dining in the 50's, with the stainless steel counters, red booths and malted milks served with the mixing container on the side.

ALGOMA TOWNSHIP - It took eight months, but all 10 of the Rosie's Diner employees who filed complaints after the iconic restaurant closed abruptly have been paid their back wages.

Some were paid as recently as last month after filing complaints, according to Jill Hookey, regional manager for the state's Wage & Hour Division.

Seven of the employees were paid before the state finished its investigation, so a formal determination wasn't made.

But three of the complaints resulted in formal determinations and interest penalties for Woodcock Real Properties LLC, the legal entity that owned Rosie's before the property, which includes 4 acres near Rockford with three historical diner cars, was sold on the auction block in April.

The Bloomfield Hills-based Woodcock Real Properties shelled out $3,906 in total wages and penalties.

The company is owned by Jon Woods, father of Jonelle Woods, who was the proprietor of the restaurant.

The restaurant, at 4500 14 Mile Road NE in Algoma Township, closed abruptly in early October after Woods shut it initially for a short renovation project. Jonelle Woods later told her 30 full- and part-time employees she was out of money and had no choice but to shutter the business.

It was the second sale of the property watched by the restaurant's founder, Jerry Berta, an artist who brought the dining cars to Michigan in the 1990s.

Aaron Koehn, who is in the car business, picked up the landmark for $125,000 during the April online auction -- a fraction of the $450,000 Jonelle Woods paid for the property in 2006.

The iconic eatery from New Jersey was featured on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" in 2006, and on Travel Channel's "Diner Paradise."

But the 1946 dining car found fame as the backdrop for TV spots for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble’s Bounty paper towels. The 1970s commercials featured late character actress Nancy Walker, who played a waitress named Rosie who regularly used the “quicker-picker-upper” towels to clean up the spills of clumsy customers. After the commercial, the owner at the time renamed the restaurant — which originally opened as the Silver Dollar Diner in New Jersey — Rosie’s Diner.